Joint venture with GE Aviation for GEnx-2B and GE9X engines
On the 30th of September 2019, XEOS, the new aircraft engine service
centre located in Sroda Slaska near Wroclaw, has celebrated its
official opening. The company is a joint venture of Lufthansa Technik
(51%) and GE Aviation (49%) and is a service centre for GEnx-2B and
GE9X engines. It was built in a record time of 16 months. The first
commercial engine was accepted for repair in April 2019. In 2019, a
total of about 20 engines will have been inducted for service here.
After reaching its maturity in 2023 the plant will repair more than
200 engines per year.
The grand opening ceremony was attended by representatives of the
Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and the Polish
government as well as Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany
Rolf Nikel and Christian Cardona, Political and Economic Consul of
the US General Consulate. Carsten Spohr, CEO and Chairman of the
Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa, Dr. Johannes Bussmann, CEO of
Lufthansa Technik, David Joyce, Vice Chair, GE and President & CEO,
GE Aviation and Jean Lydon-Rodgers, President and CEO, GE Aviation
Services represented the two shareholders.
Dr. Johannes Bussmann, CEO of Lufthansa Technik, commented: "For
decades, Lufthansa Technik has been known as a centre of excellence
in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul business of engines and
engine components. The succesful opening of the XEOS engine shop with
our partner GE is a cornerstone for our long-term growth strategy to
offer comprehensive MRO services also for the latest generations of
aircraft engines. On this occasion I would like to thank the whole
XEOS team. Over the past two years you have done an extraordinary job
to realize this project. You can be really proud of the creation of
hundreds of high-level technical jobs and the implementation of the
highest levels of international environmental and social compliance
standards."
Jean Lydon-Rodgers, President & CEO, GE Aviation Services, said,
"XEOS represents a unique collaboration between Lufthansa Technik and
GE Aviation. Our combined capabilities and technological knowledge
have merge to create one of the most advanced MRO facilities in the
world for the GEnx-2B and GE9X engines. I congratulate the XEOS team
for building this world-class MRO engine shop and look forward to a
long future of working together to meet our customers' services
needs."
Thomas Böttger, XEOS Managing Director of Business said: "In June
2015, at the Paris Air Show, two global aviation industry leaders -
Lufthansa Technik and GE Aviation - took the decision to jointly
develop a modern service centre for GEnx-2B and GE9X engines. Today
we are fulfilling this dream and we are proud to take up further
challenges. XEOS means innovative technologies, world-class solutions
as well as the highest quality and safety standards."
The joint venture partners invested about PLN 1 billion (about 250mln
USD) to construct the facility and their own training centre from
scratch, along with a test cell which is still in the ongoing second
construction phase of the project.
Ultimately, the plant will employ about 600 people. At the moment
XEOS team consists of 300 people: aircraft engine mechanics,
engineers, logistics specialists and administration staff. They come
not only from Sroda Slaska and Lower Silesia but from all over the
world - with 12 nationalities in total. A considerable part of
production staff have only started to become experts in the aviation
industry in the XEOS centre. It has been possible owing to an
18-month theoretical and practical training programme, conducted in
XEOS Training Centre in Bielany Wrocławskie and in similar
facilities of Lufthansa Technik and GE Aviation - in Germany and the
UK.